The Richard Mille x Brough Superior RMB01 is a bike with an distinctive aesthetic pedigree

Brough Superior construct furry chested bikes, the kind of two-wheeler that wears its engineering on its sleeve. The corporate’s newest collaboration, following on from a well-received partnership with Aston Martin on the AMB 001, is that this racing machine, the RMB01.

This time, the marque in inventive cahoots with the now Toulouse-based model, is Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, itself no stranger to partnering with engineering excellence. The RMB01 is a restricted version of 150 track-focused bikes which have constructed to precise the identical ranges of care, craft and a spotlight to element as one in every of Richard Mille’s chronographs.

Whereas Brough Superior can hint its origins again to 1919, when it was the favoured conveyance of TE Lawrence, amongst others, the inspiration for the RMB01 goes again ever additional. The watchmaker wished a machine that evoked the spirit of the earliest days of motorbike racing, particularly within the USA, the place stripped down ‘Boardtrackers’ had been created to run the wooden-clad oval circuits of the pre-war period. In accordance with Brough Superior, ‘the RMB01 pays tribute to the uncooked and radical spirit of those machines.’

The brand new motorbike has an exoskeletal body, virtually insectoid in the way in which that forks and body twist and switch, leaving the engine uncovered. The mechanical complexity of the wheel hubs, brake assemblies and chain drive evoke the intricacy of a chronograph’s actions, whereas the minimalism of the streamlined gasoline tank and seat make for a flowing, uncluttered prime floor, all contained inside a carbon chassis.

Founder Richard Mille labored closed with Brough Superior’s CEO, Thierry Henriette, spending 18 months evolving the design by means of a minimum of 12 iterations. The concept was to interrupt motorbike conference, creating a robust machine with a sculptural presence with out compromising operate. Supplies like aluminium, titanium and carbon are shared throughout each manufacturers, as is the skeletonization of layered elements to disclose interior workings.

Unsurprisingly, the instrument binnacle derives a lot of its aesthetic method from the Richard Mille design playbook, with uncovered gearing and meticulously crafted dials and pointers. Milling and machining isn’t nearly creating exuberant kind but additionally lowering weight. Paired with a 997cc twin-cylinder engine growing 130bhp and specifically developed aerodynamic ‘wings’ beneath the handlebars, the RMB01 is designed to carry out greatest on monitor.

The brand new motorbike is being provided in three variations, Nocturnal Sapphire blue, Selene gray with orange particulars and Pearl of Pace, a pearlescent white with crimson particulars. Every can be hand-assembled at Brough Superior’s manufacturing unit close to Toulouse. Whether or not the top consequence will ever flip a wheel in anger, or just finally ends up as an decoration in a sure kind of bachelor pad, stays to be seen, however the collaboration is really on model for all involved.